In the frame of the 43rd Prague Spring International Music Festival 1991 the 8th Competition of wood-winds instruments (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon) took place. One hundred-thirty candidates entered it in the oboe category and 63 of them were accepted for the participation in the competition in Prague on May 2-13, 1991.
Competitors came from: Argentina (3), Australia (2), Belgium (1), Brazil (2), Czechoslovakia (7), France (8), Holland (1), Italy (7), Israel (1), Japan (3), Yugoslavia (1), Canada (2), Hungary (2), Germany (8), Poland (2), Rumania (2), the Soviet Union (4), Switzerland (2), Great Britain (4) and Venezuela (1).
The jury (Chairman: Milan Slavicky, Czechoslovakia; Ingo Goritzki, Germany; Ludmila Jezova, Czechoslovakia; Andre Lardrot, Switzerland; Jiri Mihule, Czechoslovakia; Pierre Pierlot, France; Jiri Tancibudek, Australia) faced an uneasy task: to choose the 12 best performers of A. Vivaldi's Concerto in C major, RV 447, and E. Bozza's Fantaisie pastorale in the first round.
In the second round players from Czechoslovakia (1), Australia (1), Brazil (1), Italy (1), France (4), Germany (3) and Switzerland (1) performed a) J.S. Bach's Sonata in G minor, BWV 1030; b) one of the following opuses:J.V. Kalivoda: Concertino, Op. 110;
- K. Slavicky; Suita; - A. Pasculli; Concerto sopra motivi dell' opera la Favorita di Donizetti; and c) one of the following opuses: B. Britten; Six Metamorphoses After Ovid, Op. 49; H. Dutilleux: Sonata; F. Poulenc; Sonata.
In the final round five oboists performed WA. Mozart's Concerto in C major, K. 314 and B. Martinu's Concerto.
The prizes awarded were:
1st Prize: Diana Doherty (born 1966 in Brisbane, Australia), since 1990 the principal oboist of the Symphony Orchestra in Luzern, Switzerland.
2nd Prize: Francois Leleux (born 1971), France.
3rd Prize: Jana Brozkova (born 1968), Czechoslovakia.
Honourable mention: Giovanni De Angeli (born 1967), Italy, and Jerome Guichard (born 1966), France.
The whole oboe competition was of a great artistic level. Among others the winner was given an oboe - a gift from the Puchner Company, Germany.
The next competition of young oboists (up to the age 30) will
take place in Prague in 1996. All will be welcome!